John Oliver has used one of President Donald Trump’s favorite insults against him.
The Last Week Tonight host took aim at Trump’s increasingly expensive ballroom project, which the 79-year-old has been thirsting over since he returned to the White House.
The president’s desperation for the ballroom kicked into overdrive following an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., and his visit to China, which took place in one of Beijing’s grandest entertainment spaces, the Great Hall of the People.
Trump has used both incidents to support his argument for the construction project, but Oliver wasn’t buying it in his latest monologue. “Because incredibly, despite everything going on in the world right now, Trump’s still relentlessly focused on what’s been called a ‘sweeping makeover’ of the White House and Washington D.C.,” he said.
“In the past year, he’s installed two massive flagpoles, a Presidential Walk of Fame outside the White House, paved over the Rose Garden, and redecorated the Oval Office, as if to answer the question, ‘What if an ancient Egyptian pharaoh owned an Airbnb?’”
Trump has cited safety concerns following the WHCA shooting, and Oliver played a clip of the president saying how important the ballroom project was before insulting the prior upkeep of the People’s House.
“This place was not properly taken care of,” Trump said in the clip. “I was told by my wife, ‘You have to act presidential, so don’t use foul language.’ I won’t. Therefore, normally I would have said it was a sh--house, but I don’t want to say that.”
“OK, to be clear,” Oliver resumed. “Trump’s foul language isn’t what’s been stopping him from being presidential. Simply not cursing wouldn’t make Trump a fitting president in the same way that a white coat wouldn’t make [Philadelphia Flyers mascot] Gritty a practicing oncologist.”
Trump’s ballroom had initially been expected to cost around $200 million. Now that hope is long gone.
“Since then, the projected cost has gone up to $300 million, then $400 million,” Oliver said. “And last week, he argued the only reason the cost has changed is because after ‘deep-rooted studies,’ the ballroom’s approximately ‘twice the size.’ And when a reporter dared to ask him about that on Tuesday, he kind of lost his s--t.”
Oliver then played another clip of Trump, saying, “I’ve doubled the size of it because we obviously need that, and we’re right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule.”
He was asked by a female reporter about the doubling of the cost. “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person,” he said.
Oliver quickly skewered Trump with his own words. “OK, OK, I know it is not unusual for him to demean a female journalist, but even by his standards, that was bad,” he began.
Trump has flipped out at reporters multiple times, with a heavy skew towards women, often yelling at them and in one incident even saying, “quiet, piggy!”
Oliver continued: “Look, is this the most important thing this president could be doing right now? Of course it isn’t. That would be a tie between learning where Iran is on a map and finally listening to the three ghosts who’ve been waking him up every Christmas Eve for the last 70 years.
“It should really go without saying, if you are a president who’d rather focus on ballroom construction and pool maintenance than the crucial work of actually running a country, then I think it is fair to say, to borrow a phrase that I heard recently, you are not a smart f---ing person.”
Trump’s trip to China, where major matters such as Iran and Taiwan were on the agenda, left him with a thought in his mind, which he posted on the internet. “China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!”
Security funding for upgrades to the White House were removed by the Senate parliamentarian over the weekend.
Republicans had been seeking $1 billion from taxpayers for the security upgrades for the Secret Service, which would likely have included the ballroom, despite initial promises from Trump that it would be paid for privately.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
